There are so many website building options to build your website on including WordPress, Joomla, Squarespace, and Wix to name a few. It gets very confusing on which one you should use, so below I’m going to outline the best platforms for website development below.

WordPress.org vs WordPress.com

When it comes to WordPress, many users only know there is a single platform. Most users don’t realise that there are two WordPress solutions and both of these are meant for different purposes.

WordPress.org

This is self-hosted WordPress and is the original open source platform that can be used by anyone.  The only thing you will have to buy is the web hosting service and domain name. It provides you with total control over all the other aspects of your website.

WordPress.com

This is a website as a service implementation developed on the WordPress.org platform. You can use it to get a basic free website and upgrade with more space and functions. However, it doesn’t provide you with the level of flexibility that comes with the .org platform.

WordPress.org is self-hosted and very customizable. WordPress.com is not self-hosted and there are lots of limitations on customization. You will own the content when you use the .org platform (as long as you back it up) whereas if you stop paying or managing your .com website then your content will disappear.

WordPress.org vs Wix vs Joomla vs Squarespace

The key features of these different CMS platforms or in simple terms known as website builders are as follows:

• Wix Website: This CMS provides industry-specific themes and advanced customisation options. It features templates for website and sub-pages, SEO tools, maps, contact forms, and photo galleries. Its own Wix App Market offers hundreds of apps to create fully-featured websites.
• Joomla: This is also a popular open-source CMS that features an intuitive website management UI. You can get access to hundreds of extensions to customise and enhance the platform’s functionalities. Similar to WordPress, it has a large community where you can seek all the assistance you may require.
• Squarespace: This SaaS site builder provides all the tools and features required to build and maintain a website. It features CMS, templates, hosting, domain, support, e-commerce solutions, and much more. The Standard version is meant for the vast majority that doesn’t have expertise in web development. Then there is the developer version for advanced users. WordPress is still the more flexible and powerful platform compared to Squarespace. However, Squarespace has its quirks. You will find it easier to set up a website using Squarespace. Just make sure to update your website and you will not have to worry about security and maintenance. If you need a simple website without any hassles, Squarespace can be an excellent choice.

• org: WordPress.org gives you the advantage of self-hosting for a small annual fee with unlimited domains. You can choose premium themes that keep getting updated when the WP versions receive an update. You can easily integrate it with social media. There is no need for customisation and you have access to a vast community for support.

WordPress.org Vs Wix

Both WordPress and Wix are excellent platforms for building your site. But they have many differences.

• Ease of Use: WordPress offers simplicity for beginners, but if you want to take advantage of its true power, you should gain advanced knowledge. Wix is designed for beginners. It offers a drag-and-drop site builder and all the tools and features are available on a click. However, it does have an advanced web application development solution in the form of Wix Code.
• Flexibility: WP is highly flexible and customisable, but there can be issues if custom plugins and tools have issues. Wix offers limited customisation, but all the tools and features are controlled and monitored to ensure proper working.
• Maintenance: With WP, you will have to update and maintain your website on a regular basis. Wix manages its platform and you will not have to worry about maintenance and updates.

WordPress.org vs Joomla

Ease of use is one of the fortes of WP. It is easy and quick to setup and installation take a few minutes. Many hosting services provide one-click install option to make it even simpler. It has a simple user interface and most functions can be completed with a click. Content creation is also easy. Embed content from a wide range of external sources using simple copy/paste function.

Joomla is slightly more complex than WordPress. It is more suited for someone who is moderately tech-savvy. Installation is simple and quick like WP and you can also find hosting services offering single-click installs. There are page builders that allow beginners to create more complex layouts without coding. This CMS provides more functionality than WP but is more complex.

WordPress.org vs Squarespace

There are areas where WordPress is better than Squarespace and other areas where the latter outperforms the former.

The WordPress.org Advantage

• The CMS is more sophisticated and allows content versioning
• You can create any type of website with WP
• WordPress offers more number and variety of templates
• Create websites with deeper levels of navigation. Squarespace requires custom coding for this.
• Add more functionality to your WP site using a vast collection of plugins. This is made possible through code blocks and widgets in Squarespace

WP also has the edge when it comes to creating multilingual websites, advanced data capture, advanced SEO, and control over content.

The Squarespace Advantage

• Squarespace doesn’t have the steep learning curve as WP has
• Many of the features accessible through plugins in WP are accessible out of the box in Squarespace
• Web hosting and domain names come as part of the solution
• Squarespace addresses a significant part of your site’s security

If you require a simple and beautiful website, Squarespace may be a better option.

Conclusion

Thus, in my opinion WordPress.org may be the most popular and best free website builder due to its versatility, vastness, open-source form, and many other factors. There are still areas where other platforms can excel. So make sure to evaluate all the different options before choosing the right CMS for your web applications as it really does come down to personal choice.

If you are a current user of WordPress.org come and join me in my FREE WP Community Group.

I’m Jacinta Thomas, also known as your humble wordpress web design tech whiz and online marketing consultant.

I’m a reserved yet highly motivated and adaptable digital marketing expert ready to use my online marketing knowledge to help your business be seen online and ramp up your sales. I love horses, dogs, cats, country music, chocolate and most of all helping people.

I help family focused entrepreneurs build top ranking, self-managed websites, help work through any wordpress tech issues and get set up with hosting, blogging, SEO and social media, so they can earn more money and live their dream life.

If you’re ready to get your business online, and seen on social media and all search engines then check out my blog, biz resources, jump into my free Facebook group and of course contact me at any time.

When you run a Facebook ad campaign, it is important that you know what your visitors are then doing on your website. Having facebook pixels set up allows you to track the performance of your ads. Facebook Pixel is the tool that allows you to gather this valuable information. This code will monitor the activities of your visitors to improve the performance of future ad campaigns. In fact, you can install it and gather valuable audience data even if you are not running your ad campaigns.

What is Facebook Pixel?

Facebook Pixel is a code that is added to your website and keeps track of conversions based on traffic generated from Facebook ads. It can also help in optimising ads and build targeted audience for future ad campaigns based on collected data. It helps you understand visitor actions on your site. It uses cookies to keep track of user interactions on your site and Facebook ads.

Uses of Facebook Pixel

Facebook Pixel can be used to collect data based on a standard set of events defined by the social networking site or your own custom events. ‘Event’ refers to the action taken by a visitor on your site.

The standard Facebook Pixel events set by Facebook are as follows:

• View Content: When someone visits your site
• Search: When someone uses the search feature on your site
• Add to wishlist: When a visitor adds a product to their wishlist
• Add to Cart: When a visitor adds a product to the cart
• Initiate Checkout: When a visitor begins the checkout process
• Add Payment Info: When a potential buyer enters payment information
• Make Purchase: When a visitor completes the buying process
• Lead: When a visitor signs up for information or gives signals that they are a lead
• Complete Registration: When a visitor fills a registration form

Benefits of Using Facebook Pixels

So what are the different ways in which you can benefit from Facebook Pixel?

Run More Effective Facebook Ads

Facebook Pixel helps you make your Facebook ads more effective. Improve your ad’s quality by improving targeting. It helps ensure that your ads are viewed by those who are most likely to buy from you.

Create Custom Conversions

An important feature that allows you to create a conversion by selecting a completion page and giving a name to the conversion. In most of the cases, it is a ‘thank you’ page.

Website Custom Audiences

This feature allows you to retarget your site visitors. Once Facebook Pixel is installed, it will track your visitors who are simultaneously logged into their Facebook accounts. It records the pages visited and not visited, along with the day and time. The data enables your ads to reach highly targeted groups.

Remarketing

You can also use the tool to display targeted ads to those who have already visited your site. It allows you to display ads for the products that visitors added to their incomplete shopping carts.

Facebook Pixel can also be used for creating lookalike audiences. Thus, the code is a valuable tool in helping you achieve your goals through Facebook ads.

How to install Facebook pixels

1. Go to your Facebook Events Manager, on the top left hand click on the 3 lines next to where it says Events Manager and then under Events Manager click on Pixels.

2. Click on create a pixel and follow the prompts.

Once completed creating your pixel, you're ready to put the Facebook pixel code onto your website. It gives you a few options including Someone else makes changes to my website and I update my website's code.

If you want to give it ago then keep following the instructions by adding the pixel code into the header of your website. If you use chrome as your internet browser then you can check it by installing this the Facebook pixel helper.

If you don’t feel comfortable, then Jacinta and her Team at Thomas Web Designs can do this for you for only $49, more information here.

I’m Jacinta Thomas, also known as your humble wordpress web design tech whiz and online marketing consultant.

I’m a reserved yet highly motivated and adaptable digital marketing expert ready to use my online marketing knowledge to help your business be seen online and ramp up your sales. I love horses, dogs, cats, country music, chocolate and most of all helping people.

I help family focused entrepreneurs build top ranking, self-managed websites, help work through any wordpress tech issues and get set up with hosting, blogging, SEO and social media, so they can earn more money and live their dream life.

If you’re ready to get your business online, and seen on social media and all search engines then check out my blog, biz resources, jump into my free Facebook group and of course contact me at any time.

When it comes to marketing your brand and products, you would always choose platforms where your target audience spends more of their time. Facebook has over 2.23 billion monthly active users. Twitter has around 336 million users. LinkedIn has around 500 million users. There are half a dozen more social media sites that have hundreds of millions of monthly active users between them. An average smartphone user spends more than an hour every day on one or more of these social media sites. With such a high level of user engagement, it is not difficult to see why social media is an important marketing factor for your business.

There are even more reasons why social media is such an important digital marketing factor.

1. Generate Targeted Traffic

Engaging social media posts are highly effective in driving targeted traffic to your website or landing pages. Social media networks have billions of users and a well-designed marketing strategy can drive an unprecedented volume of traffic to your website.

Social media has become almost a necessity for people. And websites like Facebook and Twitter make it easy for you to target users based on their demographics and interests. You can categorise users based on various factors and ensure that your brand is promoted to the right audience.

2. Improved Brand Recognition & Loyalty

Social media allow your prospects to access your business with ease. And it makes your brand seem more familiar to your existing customers, thus boosting brand recognition. Studies also show that social networking sites also improve brand loyalty. Users who follow your brand are highly likely to be loyal to you.

A brand starts gaining increased recognition once people start noticing it on social media. Whether you are a new or an existing brand, social media sites help you earn your voice in the market.

3. Deeper Insights

Social media helps you gain valuable insights into what your customers need. You can learn about your audience’s interests and plan the right steps to approach them with your marketing messages. Not only can you observe the comments made by your target audience on your page, you can also target ads based on factors that help determine your audience. You can keep an eye on competitor practices and improve upon them.

Social media allows you to collect data about how people are interacting with your brand. The patterns, trends, and relevant reports can help you build a better marketing strategy.

4. Influence on SEO

Social media signals are regarded as important ranking elements in search engine algorithms. Thus, having a strong presence on social media sites can also have a positive impact on your SEO. Even when Google hasn’t acknowledged it, many marketers have noticed the influence of social media activities on search engine rankings.  If your social media profiles gain more positive interaction from your fans and followers, it can send strong signals to Google ranking algorithms, thus boosting your rankings.

The platform has become bigger than ever and allows easier access to valuable information. There are many tools that provide you valuable insights into relevant data. Thus, there are many ways in which social media plays an important role in your marketing strategy.

Thomas Web Designs can help you to set up your social media for your business and provide you with the best options for posting. https://thomaswebdesigns.com.au/socialmediamanagement/

I’m Jacinta Thomas, also known as your humble wordpress web design tech whiz and online marketing consultant.

I’m a reserved yet highly motivated and adaptable digital marketing expert ready to use my online marketing knowledge to help your business be seen online and ramp up your sales. I love horses, dogs, cats, country music, chocolate and most of all helping people.

I help family focused entrepreneurs build top ranking, self-managed websites, help work through any wordpress tech issues and get set up with hosting, blogging, SEO and social media, so they can earn more money and live their dream life.

If you’re ready to get your business online, and seen on social media and all search engines then check out my blog, biz resources, jump into my free Facebook group and of course contact me at any time.

There are many reasons people want to start a blog. Even when there an underlying goal for monetisation, it is the pursuit of creativity and a strong passion that drive most people towards blogging. Launching and setting up a blog can be a confusing task if you don’t know about the steps involved. This guide introduces you to the basic steps and the most important steps you should be taking to start your blog.

This post contains affiliate links. For more information, see my disclosures here.

Basic Steps

The basic steps to creating a blog are as follows:

• Choose a blog name
• Get the blog online by registering and getting it hosted
• Create your blog. Usually, you will be using a template
• Write and publish your blog posts
• Monetise your blog

While there are many steps in between, there are 3 important areas that are extremely important to address. These areas can be addressed by using the following 3 steps:

1. Choose the Blog Name

When choosing your blog name, you should start by choosing the right topic. Consider these points to come up with the topic:

• Your Experience: Whether it’s your professional or life experience, you can create a blog around those experiences. The blog name can be focused on your experience and sharing your knowledge can be helpful to others.
• Personal Blog: You may create a blog that is focused on you and your daily experiences.
• Hobbies & Interests: If you are passionate about an interest such as traveling, cooking, sports or other things, you can name your blog accordingly.

When you have determined the topic of your blog, it will become easier to choose the blog name. When creating the blog name, you should make it descriptive so that it is easy to understand what the blog is about. It is also recommended to include the topic name in the blog name. When it comes to a personal blog, you can use your own name or a variation of it. When you purchase the hosting for your blog we will also show you how to purchase your blog name below.

2. Host Your Blog Online

It will be required to get your blog online and this may seem to be a more technical aspect. However, the process has become simpler than ever before. A web hosting service will usually provide both blog hosting service and the blogging program within the same package. Major hosting services provide the following benefits:

• Your blog name will be registered to ensure that you will own it
• A simple and free installation of the blogging software, usually WordPress
• Customer service and technical support that is available around the clock

I recommend you purchase your domain name and hosting through Site ground- https://thomaswebdesigns.com.au/siteground Pick the basic web hosting which is normally $4.95 per month to start, also obtain your domain name through here. Besides your domain registration, I would avoid worrying about their extra add on services at this stage unless you want to. Once your domain name and hosting is installed and you are logged in to your siteground account you can go ahead and install WordPress, a free theme and start designing your website.

3. Monetisation

Even if you have created your blog for your interests or for sharing your knowledge, monetising it can help you sustain it. Once your blog starts generating lots of traffic, it will become easier to monetise it. And there are many ways in which you can do so.

Some of the popular methods include the following:

• Google AdSense
• Product reviews
• Selling products/services
• Affiliate marketing
• Sponsored posts

You can also allow your followers to make donations to support your blog. You can use a combination of these strategies to monetise your blog. Another way to generate income is to have paid placements that involve selling space on your site. Plus you can offer products or services you want to sell online that you make, you purchase at a wholesale rate or you can dropship items.

You can join our FREE Community group https://thomaswebdesigns.com.au/my-community/  to get more help and support with your new blog post.

I’m Jacinta Thomas, also known as your humble wordpress web design tech whiz and online marketing consultant.

I’m a reserved yet highly motivated and adaptable digital marketing expert ready to use my online marketing knowledge to help your business be seen online and ramp up your sales. I love horses, dogs, cats, country music, chocolate and most of all helping people.

I help family focused entrepreneurs build top ranking, self-managed websites, help work through any wordpress tech issues and get set up with hosting, blogging, SEO and social media, so they can earn more money and live their dream life.

If you’re ready to get your business online, and seen on social media and all search engines then check out my blog, biz resources, jump into my free Facebook group and of course contact me at any time.

Creating a WordPress website is an excellent decision for your business. You will, however, have to do a lot than just setting up a site to benefit from it. This involves regular maintenance and updates so that your website continues to deliver a great experience and remains secure. There are many reasons why you are going to need the help of a professional service to maintain and update your WP site. Find out the different reasons.

1. Let the Professionals Handle It

WordPress is considered to be pretty simple to handle. Once your website has been designed and set, your web designing team can guide you on how to update and maintain it. WordPress is still a CMS and it requires some good amount of knowledge to do everything right. Most website owners are concerned about dealing with updates, plugins, backups, and other aspects of their WP site. If you are worried about doing something wrong, you should consider letting the professionals handle the maintenance and update aspects of your site. Getting help can also ensure that you are avoiding costly errors.

2. Updating Information

If a website should maintain its relevance, it should be updated with new and relevant information as and when needed. For example, you may want to add new products and images. You may either not know how to update the content on your site or you may be afraid that you may not be able to do it properly. The last thing you want is to make your website look like it has been put up by someone unprofessional.

There are many reasons you may want to update your website, including:

• Implementing new marketing strategies
• Adding a new checkout process
• Adding new customer service features (live chat) to your site
• Add a page about a special sale or an event
• Provide information about special offers and discounts

At the same time, it is also important to keep your website content fresh to boost your search engine rankings. You can consider adding a blog to your WP site. Maintaining the blog is also going to need professional help.

3. Save Valuable Time

No matter whether you are an expert with WordPress or not, you are going to need professional help if you want to focus on running your business. Most business owners don’t have the time or energy to regularly update their website.

Running a business involves much more than maintaining your site. You have to take care of sales, marketing, operations, and other aspects of your business. Considering all the tasks you have to handle every day, it is highly likely that your site’s maintenance is going to fall behind.

Thus, there are many reasons why you should hire a professional service to maintain and update your WordPress site. Your site is important to your business depending on your business model. When you have someone to take care of it, you will have peace of mind that all different parts of your business are being taken care of.

Check out our ongoing website maintenance packages. 

I’m Jacinta Thomas, also known as your humble wordpress web design tech whiz and online marketing consultant.

I’m a reserved yet highly motivated and adaptable digital marketing expert ready to use my online marketing knowledge to help your business be seen online and ramp up your sales. I love horses, dogs, cats, country music, chocolate and most of all helping people.

I help family focused entrepreneurs build top ranking, self-managed websites, help work through any wordpress tech issues and get set up with hosting, blogging, SEO and social media, so they can earn more money and live their dream life.

If you’re ready to get your business online, and seen on social media and all search engines then check out my blog, biz resources, jump into my free Facebook group and of course contact me at any time.

One of the main aspects of maintaining your WordPress website is to ensure that the themes and plugins are updated regularly. There are many reasons in which these updates are essential.  In addition to adding features, updates can mean fixing bugs, improving site reliability, and improving security. So it is recommended to apply all updates at the earliest they are available. However, there are certain points to be kept in mind when determining how often to update the plugins and themes.

General Recommendation

It is usually recommended to update the themes and plugins once a month. Besides keeping your site safe and protected from malware attacks and hackers, this can also help ensure that the themes and plugins are compatible with each other.

Failing to update regularly can make your site vulnerable to potential attacks and incompatibilities.

Check the Plugin’s Changelog

While once a month is the recommended frequency for updating your site’s plugins and themes, it may be required to make even more frequent updates. Sometimes plugins can have critical security updates that need to be applied immediately. You can check for these updates from within the theme or plugin’s changelog.

If you find a critical security update, such as WordPress version updates, then you should implement it right away. Otherwise, it is recommended to wait for a couple of weeks before updating non-critical updates.

Reasons for Waiting to Update

There is an important reason for waiting for a few weeks before applying a normal update. If the update has a bug, it is highly likely to be detected and fixed within the first two weeks of the release.

So when you delay an update by two weeks, it will mean that you will not have to face any issues that may arise due to a bug in the update itself. You will be able to implement an update that is error-free. This means lesser hassles and more time savings.

Test an Update

If you notice an update that should be applied immediately, you can test it first using a staging environment. Many times there are updates with features or bug fixes which need to be installed right away. You can talk to your hosting provider about a staging environment and you should make the most of it – even for small updates.

Once you have tested an update and are certain that it is bug-free, you can go ahead and apply it. Make sure your site is already backed up even if you are running the update as a test.

So, the next time you see the new plugin or theme update sign, you should consider whether you need the update right away. If it is not a critical security update, you should wait for at least a week before any issues are detected and addressed. It is better to learn from the experience of other users than having to troubleshoot your site. I

Don’t feel you are techy enough to update plugins regularly yourself?

Then have a look at our website maintenance packages.

I’m Jacinta Thomas, also known as your humble wordpress web design tech whiz and online marketing consultant.

I’m a reserved yet highly motivated and adaptable digital marketing expert ready to use my online marketing knowledge to help your business be seen online and ramp up your sales. I love horses, dogs, cats, country music, chocolate and most of all helping people.

I help family focused entrepreneurs build top ranking, self-managed websites, help work through any wordpress tech issues and get set up with hosting, blogging, SEO and social media, so they can earn more money and live their dream life.

If you’re ready to get your business online, and seen on social media and all search engines then check out my blog, biz resources, jump into my free Facebook group and of course contact me at any time.